The worldwide emergence and dissemination of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CRGNB) is a challenging problem of antimicrobial resistance today. Outbreaks with CRGNB have severe consequences for both the affected healthcare settings as well as the patients with infection. Thus, bloodstream infections caused by metallo-ß-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales can often have clinical implications, resulting in high mortality rates due to delays in administering effective treatment and the limited availability of treatment options. The overall threat of CRGNB is substantial because carbapenems are used to treat infections caused by ESBL-producing Enterobacterales which also exist with high frequency within the same geographical regions. A genome-based surveillance of 589 CRGNB from 61 hospitals across the federal state Hesse in Germany was implemented using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to obtain a high-resolution landscape of carbapenem-resistant isolates over a three-year period (2017–2019). The study examined all reportable CRGNB isolates submitted by participating hospitals. This included isolates carrying known carbapenemases (435) together with carbapenem-resistant non-carbapenemase producers (154). Predominant carbapenemase producers included Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii and Acinetobacter baumannii. Over 80% of 375 carbapenem-resistant determinants including KPC-, NDM-, VIM- and OXA-48-like ones detected in 520 Enterobacterales were plasmid-encoded, and half of these were dominated by a few incompatibility (Inc) types, viz., IncN, IncL/M, IncFII and IncF(K). Our results revealed that plasmids play an extraordinary role in the dissemination of carbapenem resistance in the heterogeneous CRGNB population. The plasmids were also associated with several multispecies dissemination events and local outbreaks throughout the study period, indicating the substantial role of horizontal gene transfer in carbapenemase spread. Furthermore, due to vertical and horizontal plasmid transfer, this can have an impact on implant-associated infections and is therefore important for antibiotic-loaded bone cement and drug-containing devices in orthopedic surgery. Future genomic surveillance projects should increase their focus on plasmid characterization.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the serious global health problems, threatening the effective treatment of a growing number of infections. Machine learning and deep learning show great potential in rapid and accurate AMR predictions. However, a large number of samples for the training of these models is essential. In particular, for novel antibiotics, limited training samples and data imbalance hinder the models’ generalization performance and overall accuracy. We propose a deep transfer learning model that can improve model performance for AMR prediction on small, imbalanced datasets. As our approach relies on transfer learning and secondary mutations, it is also applicable to novel antibiotics and emerging resistances in the future and enables quick diagnostics and personalized treatments.

Members of the genusSneathiaare fastidious bacteria that predominantly colonise the female genital tract and are significantly associated with reproductive disorders and genital and neonatal disease. From a taxonomical perspective, the genus only comprises the speciesSneathia sanguinegens. Numerous reports on a second species, ‘Sneathia amnii’, have been published, but the name has never been validated. The same is the case for ‘Leptotrichia amnionii’, which was previously shown to belong to the same species as ‘Sneathia amnii’. We studied strains DSM 16631^Tand DSM 16630, which have been identified and deposited as ‘Leptotrichia amnionii’ previously. At the time of isolation, these strains were found to be most closely related to, but clearly different from,Sneathia sanguinegensbased on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities. Both strains proved to be almost indistinguishable from ‘Sneathia amnii’ based on molecular, morphological and physiological traits. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain DSM 16631^Twas assigned to the genusSneathiawith a sequence similarity of 95.47 % toSneathia sanguinegensCCUG 41628^T, followed by type strains ofCaviibacter abscessus(93.03 %),Oceanivirga salmonicida(92.68 %) andOceanivirga miroungae(91.97 %) as the next closely related members of theLeptotrichiaceae. The novel species was also clearly differentiated from other related taxa by core genome phylogeny, average nucleotide and amino acid identities,in silicoDNA–DNA hybridization and MALDI-TOF MS. With respect to chemotaxonomic and physiological patterns, strains DSM 16631^Tand DSM 16630 were again highly similar toSneathia sanguinegens. On the basis of these data, we propose the novel speciesSneathia vaginalissp. nov. with the type strain DSM 16631^T(=CCUG 52977^T=CCUG 52889A^T) and a second strain DSM 16630 (=CCUG 52976=CCUG 52888) that were both isolated from bloodstream infections in women with puerperal fever in France. The G+C content of the DNA of the type strain is 28.4 mol% and the genome size is 1.28 Mbp. Based on the observed extremely high similarities of genotypic and phenotypic traits of the novel proposed species to those reported for ‘Sneathia amnii’, we recommend using this new name in all further publications on this taxon.

Proteus mirabilis is a well-known opportunistic pathogen predominantly associated with urinary tract infections. It exhibits natural resistance to multiple antibiotics, including last-resort options like colistin. The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant P. mirabilis isolates, including those producing ESBLs, AmpC cephalosporinases, and carbapenemases, are now more frequently reported. The most common carbapenemase types found in P. mirabilis are KPC-2, IMP, VIM, NDM, and OXA-48. We sequenced the genomes of three carbapenem-resistant P. mirabilis isolates harboring both bla_VIM-4 and bla_VIM-75 from Germany using both short-read and long-read sequencing techniques. We found that the isolates were only distantly related genetically. Both bla_VIM-4 and bla_VIM-75 genes were located on a class I integron, which in two cases was located on the chromosome and in one case on a plasmid. This is the first report on the complete genomes of P. mirabilis strains harboring a rare genetic element encoding both bla_VIM-4 and bla_VIM-75. Our results emphasize a key role for class 1 integrons in the transmission of VIM carbapenemases in P. mirabilis.

Lithium phosphorus oxynitride (LiPON) is one of the promising electrolyte material for the thin-film batteries due to its superior electrochemical stability, moderate ionic conductivity and low electronic conductivity. In addition, LiPON has a wide optical bandgap (>3 eV) which makes it transparent for UV-Vis light and suitable for using in electrochromic thin film devices. The typical value of ionic conductivity of LiPON is in the range of 0.2 to 3.3×10^-6 S/cm[1]. Here we report the deposition of amorphous LiPON thin films by RF sputtering from a commercial Li₃PO₄ target in nigtrogen atmosphere with the ionic conductivities at room temperature as high as 6.5×10^-6 S/cm with an activation energy of 0.55 eV. The average growth rate is 14 nm per minute. The electronic conductivity is found to be 2.2×10^-12 S/cm. The film composition is determined to be Li_3.13PO_1.69N_1.39by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), which demonstrates our LiPON sample contains relatively high nitrogen content and low oxygen content. The local structure is probed by XPS and Raman spectrometry. The incorporation of nitrogen in the matrix is confirmed by both methods and the nitrogen is present in two different chemical environments corresponding to and P-N=P. The optical properties of LiPON are studied by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and transmission measurements. The LiPON film is found to have a bandgap of 3 eV and is highly transparent for UV-VIS light. The optical constants include refractive index n, extinction coefficient k and absorption coefficient α in the energy range of 0.58~5.5 eV are derived. The Urbach tail is also observed in LiPON thin films when photon energy is lower than the bandgap. For its application in electrochromic device, the WO₃/LiPON half-cells are prepared and the electrochromic properties will be discussed. [1] J.F. Ribeiro, R. Sousa, J.P. Carmo, L.M. Gonçalves, M.F. Silva, M.M. Silva, J.H. Correia, Thin Solid Films 522 (2012) 85-89.